Color propagation has a wide range of applications in video processing. For example, color propagation may be utilized as part of the work flow in filmmaking, where color modification for artistic purposes typically plays an important role. In addition, color propagation may be used in the restoration and colorization of heritage film footage.
Conventional approaches for color propagation often rely on optical flow computation to propagate colors in a video sequence from fully colored video frames. However, estimating the correspondence maps utilized in optical flow approaches to color propagation is computationally expensive and tends to be error prone. Unfortunately, inaccuracies in optical flow can lead to color artifacts which accumulate over time. Consequently, there remains a need in the art for a more efficient video color propagation.